Japan has lost 2.5 percent of its population in five years - more than three million people. That's the largest drop since 1920, when the official census was introduced. The rate is three times higher than the 2015-2020 period. The country now counts 123 million residents, and the future isn't bright.

The numbers are classic for a demographic crisis everyone sees and nobody knows how to solve: 1.2 children per woman in 2023, well below the 2.1 replacement rate. 705,000 births in 2025 - the tenth consecutive year of decline. Japan is now the second-oldest society in the world, right behind Monaco.

What was the government doing? What gets done in every similar country - they try child subsidies, throw money at parental leave, roll out state-run dating apps. None of it works. Conservative prime minister Sanae Takaichi isn't following the standard recipe - an immigration policy - she's going the other way: "tightened measures against the inflow of foreigners," according to France Presse.

For the Balkans, this is a mirror in which we can see ourselves 20 years from now. Macedonia has been losing population for decades - not just because of births, but because of emigration. Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia - the same script. The difference is that Japan has a powerful economy that can absorb the consequences over generations; we try the same recipes, but without those means. When Japan "solves" something, it's usually already too late for the countries following the same path. The question isn't whether we'll see the same calibre of decline - it's how much time we have left.